Timelash

Two episodes (45 mins each)
Aired between 9th March 1985 and 16th March 1985

Written by Glen McCoy
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Pennant Roberts


Synopsis

On a distant planet known as Karfel, a despotic ruler called the Borad monitors his subjects via cameras and rules with an iron fist.  A council of elders under him, led by a Maylin, rule in his name and keep the people in line.  They insist that no mirrors are allowed in the society, that all power is periodically transferred to the Borad's power banks, and that they are waging a pointless war with a neighbouring race of snake-like aliens known as the Bandril. If subjects incur the wrath of the Borad, they are either taken to him directly and killed, or escorted by huge, blue skinned androids to a time fissure in the capitol known as the Timelash.

There, they are thrown into it, never to return.

After asking too many questions and having contacts to rebels, the current Maylin, Renis is taken before the Borad and is hit by a beam of energy that ages him until he's just a skeleton. 

His daughter, Vena, and the rebel she keeps company with are both thrown in the timelash. Unknown until it's too late, Vena takes with her an amulet that helps transfer power to the Borad's systems. The new Maylin, a despicable scheming man known as Tekker, is tasked with getting it back.

On their travels, the Doctor and Perri find themselves coming into contact with the time corridor of the timelash.   They see a ghostly image of Vena pass through the console room.  The Doctor soon works out that the corridor goes to Karfel and says that he's been there before.  He takes the TARDIS there and is met by Tekker who gives them a smarmy welcome.

The Doctor is suspicious of the amount of advancement the society has made since he was last there, and of the lack of mirrors, but plays along for the moment.  He allows Perri to be shown some sights and he goes off with Tekker. It's not long before the new Maylin plays his hand and forces the Doctor to go into the Timelash with the TARDIS to retrieve the amulet.  He's taken Perri hostage to make sure this happens. What Tekker doesn't know, is that Perri has managed to evade capture and has gone into the tunnels under the city where she meets the rebels who help her escape from large lizards known as Morlox. 

The Doctor, forced to comply, goes in the TARDIS and calculates where Vena would have landed as she emerged from the timelash, finding it in Scotland, 1885.  It turns out, she's come into contact with a young man called Herbert who is besotted with her and sees her as an angel. 

The Doctor finds him most annoying, but although he tries to leave him behind, Herbert manages to stow away on the TARDIS and goes back with Vena and the Doctor to Karfel.

Once back, Tekker takes the amulet and orders the android to push them back into the Timelash.

They are forced to fight and with the help of revolting civilians, they just manage to survive and destroy the android.  They block the council chamber and access to the Timelash, buying the Doctor enough time to reach into the corridor and take two Krontron crystals (of the same substance that the amulet is made of). 

With these, the Doctor makes a time-ruse, allowing them to escape into the city and going after Perri.  Herbert naturally goes with him.

Perri gets re-captured and tied up in the tunnels, ready to be feasted on by a Morlox.  A cannister of strange gas is installed on her chest. 

Tekker goes to see the Borad and blames the problems on the last remaining Councillor, who is killed by the ageing beam, thus leaving Tekker as the only one in charge after the Borad. The Doctor finds a way to their hidden lair and sees that the Borad is a hideous malformed human / morlox hybrid. 

It's revealed that he used to be a scientist called Megelen, a man who was doing questionable experiments the last time the Doctor was here. The Doctor had stopped him, but he had no idea that the man had gone ahead anyway and disfigured himself for life. The Borad / Megelen now blames the Doctor for everything and says he intends to use the same gas that disfigured him on Perri. 

He's also provoked the conflict with the Bandrils as he knows they will use Bendalypse Warheads, which will wipe out the humans, but leave him and the Morlox alive, thus allowing him to rebuild Karfel in his own image.  Tekker is shocked at this revelation, but is simply killed by the Borad with the ageing ray.

As Herbert is freeing Perri and rescuing her from the Morlox, the Doctor reflects the ageing beam back at the Borad with the Krontron crystals and kills him.

They all rush back to the Council chamber and contact the Bandrils, trying to stop them from firing their missiles. 

They refuse as they cannot trust the Karfellans, and the Doctor is forced to get in the TARDIS and fly to intercept them.  Perri wants to go too, but the Doctor stubbornly refuses as he secretly knows he's going to die in the process.  Herbert once again stows away, much to the annoyance of the Doctor. 

Due to his brilliance, the Doctor finds a way of detonating the warheads on route and they survive.  Both he and Herbert return to Karfel and are given a heroes welcome. Celebrations are short lived however as the Borad seemingly returns from the dead and takes Perri captive. 

It turns out the Borad had a clone and could transfer consciousness to it. He is defeated a second time when a false wall is smashed (with a picture of the third Doctor on it) and reveals a mirror which repulses the Borad enough to be distracted. 

He is thrown into the timelash and the threat is over, but the Doctor says that he'll turn up from time to time in Loch Ness.

The Doctor and Perri agree to return Herbert home, and he gives them his business card which reveals his full name - Herbert George Wells

Trivia

• This story references concepts from numerous HG Wells stories including The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr Moreau

• The story was originally intended to be an adventure with the Daleks as the main enemy, but Eric Saward asked for this to be cut as the writer was still a novice at this point and he felt he couldn't do them justice.

• The original version of the script had the first Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Susan going to Karfel, but this was changed to the Third Doctor and Jo Grant. A sliver of it still exists, as Tekker enquires why the Doctor only has one companion with him this time.

• Paul Darrow was well known as his role on Blakes 7 -Kerr Avon.  Colin Baker had previously played a character in that and had been sufficiently "over the top". Paul Darrow decided to return the favour and intentionally exaggerated his part, choosing to play it as Richard the Third

• At the end of the last story, it was announced that Doctor Who would be on a hiatus for a year.  The official account (according to John Nathan-Turner) was that they needed the money to launch a series of shows, especially on Daytime TV and the only way to do that was to cancel a load that weren't working.  Doctor Who wasn't cancelled, but rested to free up some of that money

• The press had a field day with it all and mounted a save Doctor Who campaign that lasted several months.  Rumours were that controller of the BBC at the time - Michael Grade - did not like the show and was intending for it not to return, but the volume of response caused them to re-think this and re-instate it a year later.  More on this next season

The Review

Many a time on this journey, I have said that the premise of a story has been particularly great, but the execution has severely diminished it.  Well, when it comes to Timelash, I want to say the same, except the concept of the story (finding out how HG Wells got all his ideas) would take, what, ten minutes at the most in terms of revealing a pay off, fifteen at the maximum. The problem is that this story has ninety minutes to kill, so that's over an hour of filler to find to justify the payoff for this concept, and find a meaningful way to bring the Doctor and Perri into this. 

Timelash is shown in such a way as to leave the viewer feeling as that was exactly the case - that everything else was filler.  Even the tidbits of "oh, that's where HG Wells got the idea for the Inivisible Man from" are pretty mundane and boring - the closest we get to "excitement" is the rescue of Perri from the Morlox.  It's just a story made to annoy you - from the high-low alternating pitch of the androids voice, past the extremely hammed up Tekker, right the way to the Doctor's five minute back and forth with the annoying Herbert. Although, having said that, Herbert as a character had quite a descent comedy element to him. Is that what we really wanted though at the expense of a tense drama?

I ask myself, is this as bad as the Celestial Toymaker?  Difficult to say. I would say it's on a par for the most bit, with a slight increase for the fact that at least it's got a vague annoying narrative. I'd argue that t's worse than the Twin Dilemma however, as at least in that one, the Doctor was new and unpredictable (and that isn't saying much).

Timelash has very very little to redeem itself as the cardboard villains and characters go through the motions and play out this utterly annoying story.  I doubt I'll go back to it again.

Rating

3 1/2 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

2 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Space Museum 

• The Underwater Menace 

• The Abominable Snowmen

• The Krotons

• The Armageddon Factor (Key to time part 6)

The Two Doctors

Three episodes (45 mins each)
Aired between 16th February 1985 and 2nd March 1985

Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Peter Moffatt

Synopsis

The Second Doctor and Jamie are travelling to Space Station Camera on the request of the Time Lords.

The station is a research facility and they have been "ordered" to have a word with Dastari, the head researcher.  They materialise in the kitchen and meet one of the Androgum workers on the station - a chef called Shockeye of the Quarnsin Grig.  The Androgum's are primitive, practically cannibals and Shockeye has a keen longing to taste human flesh.  The Doctor and Jamie hurry away from the kitchens to meet with Dastari.

Talking to Dastari, the Doctor asks him to shut down the research that two of his colleagues - Kartz and Reimer are undertaking into time travel.  The Time Lords see the dangers and believe that they are close to catastrophe, but Dastari takes the warning to mean that the Time Lords are threatened by other races getting close to mastering time travel.

The Doctor argues with him, and also decries Dastari's own research into turning another Androgum - Chessene of the Franzine Grig into a genius level being.  He warns Dastari that even though her intellect has been raised, her instincts will always remain that of an Androgum.

As if in proof of the Doctor's warnings, Chessene goes to the station security and incapacitates them, allowing three approaching Sontaran battle cruisers to enter the station.

As the Doctor and Dastari's argument continue, they realise they've been drugged by the tea that Chessene served them.

Elsewhere, the Sixth Doctor is fishing, much to the dismay and boredom of Perri.

He suddenly grows faint and has a vision of himself (in his 2nd Regeneration) being put to death. He wrestles with the impossibility of it, and decides to visit his old friend, Dastari to get a second opinion, so he sets a course for Space Station Camera.

Chessene, Dastari and Shockeye in the meantime set a course for Earth. Chessene convinced Dastari to help master the Kartz-Reimer module and perfect time travel, and they are using a base of operations on Earth to do this secretly. The Sontarans have become involved as they want the secrets too.  The group travel to earth and are spotted by an Englishman in the Spanish countryside of Seville, whilst he's out catching moths with a net and cyanide jar.

Oscar and his partner, Anita, mistake the Sontaran ship for some kind of top secret aircraft that's crashed and they go off to find help.  They observe Chessene etc. going to a Spanish Hacienda, carrying the unconscious 2nd Doctor with them.

When they get to the station, the Doctor and Perri find that it is dark and shut down. The AI computer tries to kill them and they are forced into the guts of the station to re-wire it and find out what's going on.  The Doctor gets gassed by a self defence mechanism and Perri is attacked by a humanoid figure in the darkness.  She knocks him unconscious and the Doctor's time lord phisiology saves himself from a nasty time. They discover that the humanoid is Jamie.  They use some acupuncture needles on him to get him to explain that the Doctor was being killed by the Sontarans.

The Sixth Doctor is rightfully perplexed, but soon gets to the bottom of it, finding that Jamie saw an illusion, designed to make whoever saw it believe that the Doctor was dead.  The Doctor puts himself in a hypnotic trance and via a mind link with the 2nd Doctor, recognises the sound of bells in a Seville cathedral.  Jamie, Perri and the Doctor set off for Spain.

The Doctor knows that time travel under the Kartz-Reimer project isn't working because the project is too unstable.  The reason why Time Lords are fine in their TARDIS' is because they have a molecular bond with the machines called the Rassilon Impremeture.  He deduces that they must have taken Dastari prisoner too in order to operate on the 2nd Doctor and isolate the symbiotic nuclei in order to make the time experiments a success.

The Doctor and co arrive and meet Oscar and Anita, who tell them what they've seen.  The Doctor thanks them and asks them to lead them to the Hacienda.

They do so, and the Doctor comes up with a plan for Perri to distract the occupiers, whilst the Doctor and Jamie sneak in to rescue the 2nd Doctor.

In the basement, Dastari is planning to begin the operation when they hear the doorbell. 

Chessene goes to see and notices that Perri's thoughts are on the Doctor.  She invites Perri in and gets Shockeye to bring the 2nd Doctor through the foyer in a wheelchair (unconscious) to see if she reacts. 

She doesn't (because she's never seen the 2nd Doctor), but she does get suspicious, so she makes her excuses and leaves.  Shockeye is drooling with anticipation at eating her and Chessene agrees to let him hunt her down.  He does so and knocks her out, bringing her back to the kitchens to cook.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jamie get to the basement. They're too late to find the 2nd Doctor, but they do see the Kartz-Reimer module.  The Doctor explains to Jamie that once his time lord nuclei has been put into something called a Briode Nebuliser, the machine will work for anyone.  Unfortunately, the Sontarans overhear this and capture them both.  Under the threat of Jamie's death, the 6th Doctor is forced to go into the module and take a short trip, thus priming the nebuliser. 

Jamie wounds Field Marshall Stike with his dirk, and the two escape, but are not able to free the 2nd Doctor. 

Fearing another Time Lord's interference, Chessene insists on Dastari turning the 2nd Doctor into an Androgum with the intention of using him to double cross the Sontarans and taking the Kartz-Reimer module for themselves. They knock Shockeye out, just as he's about to start carving up Perri.

Little does she know that the Sontarans have primed the module and intend to leave in it as soon as they get word from high command.

As everyone's distracted, the 6th Doctor and Jamie manage to get Perri away. The Doctor explains that the Sontarans won't get far because he's taken the briode nebuliser. 

Dastari lures Stike and his officer into the cellar and locks them in with some coronic acid, a substance lethal to Sontarans, then gets on with the operation on the Doctor. 

Stike survives this but is wounded. He tries to get into the module but ends up bleeding profusely as it fails.  He staggers to his craft but forgets that he ordered it set to self destruct and it blows him up.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Shockeye revive and go on a jaunt into town to find some food. 

The various parties realise they've gone and all go to try and find them, playing cat and mouse all over Seville.

After and incredibly large meal at Oscar's restaurant, Shockeye and the Doctor are stuffed. Oscar asks Shockeye to pay the bill, but shockeye, insulted that he won't take foreign (alien) currency, stabs Oscar to death.  He leaves the 2nd Doctor and goes, just in time for the 6th Doctor, Perri and Jamie to find him.

Fortunately, the Doctor returns to normal, but they're captured again by Chessene and Dastari and taken back to the Hacienda.

Back there, they give Shockeye permission to eat Jamie, and force Perri to use the module again once the nebuliser has been replaced.

Satisfied, they lock them all up in chains and prepare to leave.  The Doctor's confer and it's revealed that the nebuliser has only a thin membrane, enough for just a trip by Perri.  If they use it again, it won't work. 

Together, they manage to get the key to their shackles and free themselves.  The 6th Doctor confronts Shockeye just in time, but is injured in the process and forced to run with Shockeye in pursuit.

As they go out of the Hacienda, Chessene sees the blood on the floor and is compelled to taste it, revealing to Dastari that no matter how much she's augmented, she will always be an Androgum. 

He changes his mind and frees the 2nd Doctor, but is killed by Chessene in the process. She tries to kill the Doctor and Perri, but Jamie comes to their rescue disarming her with a thrown knife.

Elsewhere, the Doctor uses Oscar's Cyanide jar to kill Shockeye.

Chessene flees into the module, but as predicted, it doesn't work and it kills her.

The 2nd Doctor uses a remote control to summon his TARDIS and he and Jamie go off on their next adventure, leaving the 6th Doctor and Perri to return to their TARDIS and swear off meat forever.

Trivia

• As with the City of Death and Planet of Fire, this was another big idea from John Nathan-Turner to have an annual trip out.  Originally it was meant to be set in New Orleans, a place that had gathered much recognition as a fan base and source of great american Dr Who conventions, but they couldn't make it work in the budget so had to choose somewhere more local - i.e. Spain

• This is the first appearance of the Doctor's multi-coloured umbrella if you don't count the press publicity shots. 

• The TARDIS console of the 2nd doctors was actually the one from the fourth / fifth doctors era, they didn't have the budget to re-create the 1960's one

• The reason why Patrick Troughton was involved is because he and Frazer Hines had such a great time on the Five Doctors. In fact, this very story was largely based on the concept that Robert Holmes worked up for that story (although for his five Doctors story, it was the Cybermen who wanted the Doctor's DNA). 

• Robert Holmes didn't really like the Sontaran's, but JNT insisted that they were put into the script

• The girder work on the space station set was actually part of the set for Top of the Pops

The Review

I have fond memories of this story, with the impeccable Patrick Troughton reprising his role and being as snarky as ever, and the presence of the threatening if a little comedic Shockeye, this was one story I was sort of looking forwards to re-watching.

The reality is that this is far more clunky than I remember.  The tropes of it are still pretty good, and some of the acting is pretty decent, but it's spoiled by an unnecessarily complicated plot, over-riffing on the let's eat humans schtick, fairly bad costumes, and some pretty over the top acting from others.

Still, this is one of the most brutal stories ever produced in Doctor Who, and the sight of Field Marshall Stike emerging from the module, covered in blood and having his face implode is something that sticks with you.  And that's the thing.  Nothing in here is good enough to be celebrated as a whole, it's more the little things that happen that are cause for remembrance. For example, as much as it was a pointless waste of time, Patrick Troughton's performance as an Androgum is pretty entertaining, as is Shockeye in small doses.

This is one of the poorest stories to come from Robert Holmes (yes, I said it), but even on his bad days, it is one that give people cause to think, with vegetarianism undertones and a no holds barred two and fro between captivity and freedom, this story has little gems in it, but not perhaps something to be celebrated beyond that.

Rating

7 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

6 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Three Doctors

• The Time Warrior

• The Five Doctors

The Mark of the Rani

Two Episodes (45 mins each)
Aired between 2nd February 1985 and 9th February 1985

Written by Pip and Jane Baker
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Sarah Hellings

Synopsis

In a little village in the north of England called Killingworth, an old woman who runs a bathhouse
has a sinister practice of gassing miners and somehow turning them into violent vandals and thugs. 

They're seen as belonging to the Luddites, a group of people that are against the oncoming use of technology in the industrial revolution that is stealing away jobs from hard working men.

Perri and the Doctor arrive in Killingworth after noticing some form of time distortion. 

They investigate the town and he soon sniffs out the fact that the bathhouse is connected to the distortion. He also discovers that a series of top names in the scientific world are about to come and meet in the village at the invitation of notable scientist George Stephenson. He is however, unaware that he's being watched from afar by his old enemy the Master, who has somehow escaped the flames and is alive and well.

The Master goes into the bathhouse and finds that another renegade Time Lord known as The Rani is orchestrating things here.

The Rani was exiled from Gallifrey and set up her own empire on a planet known as Miasmia Goria. She is extracting chemicals from the miners that controls sleep (serotonin).

The Master works out that it's because she has been messing around with her citizens to create super species, but has made them all violent. She now needs the chemical to calm them down and stop the riots.  The Master takes her batch of the chemical, as well as some small maggots that have mind control powers when placed in people's mouths, and blackmails the Rani to help him kill the Doctor.

Although the Doctor disguises himself and infiltrates the bath house to find the Rani's operation and confronts her about the immorality of it, he is ultimately captured.

The Master enlists the help of the "Luddite" miners to attack the Doctor.

They throw the TARDIS down a mine shaft and strap him onto a mine cart and are planning to send him down after it.  Perri helps rescue the Doctor, but she accidentally sets the cart going towards the mine shaft.  Lucky for the Doctor, George Stephenson himself manages to stop the cart and rescue him. 

Together, they all go to see Lord Ravensworth, the owner of the pit to plan their next move.  The Doctor tries to convince Stephenson to call off his meeting with the other scientists, but the Master overhears and ends up using one of the Rani's maggots on Stephenson's aide - Luke Ward. 

He tells Ward to kill anyone who tries to stop the meeting.  The Master then returns to the Rani and suggests she helps him make sure the meeting happens, with the intent of speeding up humanities technological development and therefore transforming it into a power base for him to rule over. In return, the Rani can come and extract as much seratonin as she wants.  The Rani gathers some landmines and takes the Master with her to set a trap.

The Doctor decides it's time for action and goes off back to the bathhouse. He steals his way into her TARDIS and begins exploring, when it is summoned to some old mine workings by remote control, with him still inside. The Doctor hides as the Master and the Rani return and awaits his chance.

Meanwhile, Perri talks with Lord Ravensworth and says she is a botany student.  She goes with Luke Ward to Redfern Dell to look for certain herbs to use to create something to calm down the "Luddite" miners. Unfortunately, Luke Ward has been commanded by the Master to take her there, as that's where the trap is for the Doctor.  They walk around and unfortunately, it's Luke himself who steps on one of the Rani's landmines and gets turned into a tree.  It comes alive as Perri walks past it and grabs her. 

The Doctor has seen it all from afar and seizes his moment, capturing the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator and using it to force them to help Perri escape.

The Doctor takes the Rani's chemical and goes to make everything right, but the Master and the Rani manage to escape, fleeing in her TARDIS.  Unfortunately for them, the Doctor sabotaged the navigation systems whilst he was in there and some of her specimens (one being a T-Rex) begin to grow and come to life due to the effect of time spillage. 

The Doctor and Perri return to Lord Ravensworth and George Stephenson, trading the serum for the Doctor's TARDIS that has been recovered from the bottom of the pit shaft.  They instruct Stephenson on how to give the chemical to the Luddites and then make their departure.

Trivia

• The Master turning back up was an instruction from JNT. There was no explanation as to how, and Eric Saward was not happy with the idea, but had no option but to let it in

• The name Rani means queen. Pip and Jane Baker based her character on their conversations with neuro biologists at dinner parties. They wanted her as an immoral biochemist rather than a typical hand-wringing villain

• The story might have had a load of studio work take place, but an extra film crew was offered by the BBC due to a mistake in another programme, so JNT took full advantage of them and sent them to Ironbridge museum to do location work instead 

• The scene where the Doctor marks his face with coal dust was made more funny by a dog taking a S**t in the pile. When Colin first did the action, he rubbed it all over his face and the crew stalled to clear it off so they could have a good laugh.

• They also left him hanging on a pole between two trees and even though some dog walkers stopped and talked to him, they never offered to untie him! 

• This was the first time Pip and Jane Baker worked on the show, but they soon became favourites of John Nathan-Turner's. He would use them throughout the seasons until the end of the series

• Colin Baker and Kate O'Mara had worked together before a couple of times and so knew each other quite well.  This was before she went on to appear in Dynasty though.

• The original music score was different as it was commissioned to a man called John Lewis, who unfortunately contracted a terminal illness and died before he got a chance to finish it.  Johnathan Gibbs was asked to do the score instead and he had a much more orchestral take on it.

The Review

The Mark of the Rani has a strange yin-yang of regard to it.  What do I mean by that?  I'll try to explain.  In fandom, it's generally regarded as a terrible story, with awful attempts at Geordie accents, stupid plots and ret-conning the Master's final death with no explanation whatsoever. BUT, this is juxtaposed by an almost cult following of the Rani (not quite to the level of Sil from the previous story, but still formidable). 

Equally, not since the shambles of Black Orchid has the Doctor Who production team even attempted to do a historical. This has all the bells and whistles of it, even including historical figures in the script, something which hasn't been seen since the sixties.  This SHOULD be a welcome return and the fact that they went to the effort to find an authentic location in a museum and get the costumes right, well, we should be applauding it. The problem is the execution is poor at best.

The character of the Rani is interesting enough, with her detached scientific approach to things making many of us intrigued. She demonstrates quite clearly, she is not cut from the Master's cloth. She has reasons and motivations and that is good. But what she's doing, the reasons why is pretty much stupid. Many of the scenes are supposed to be sinister (I think) but they come across as hokey. But as mentioned, the crux of her character is quite intriguing, which is why to this day, every new season of Doctor Who that comes out, the fans are looking with eager eyes as soon as there's a whiff of a female villain to see if the Rani is going to return (see the whole Missy debacle for more).

Sadly, the only other time she appears on screen is a laughable attempt to disguise herself as Bonnie Langford.

The Mark of the Rani should be good, on paper it probably is, on screen it most certainly is not.

Rating

4 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

4 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Time Meddler

• The Green Death

• The Time Warrior

Vengeance on Varos

Two Episodes (45mins each)
Aired between 19th January 1985 and 26th January 1985

Written by: Phillip Martin
Produced by: John Nathan-Turner
Directed by: Ron Jones

Synopsis

On a planet called Varos in the constellation of Cetus, a pair of citizens called Etta and Arrak watch the condemnation and execution of a rebel leader called Jondar live on TV. 

It's a form of reality television that the citizens are obviously used to the brutality as Arrak complains at the lack of anything new to watch.  Just like reality TV, there are also live public votes, but these are mandatory.

Meanwhile, on the TARDIS, the Doctor is still tinkering and maybe as a direct result, the ship stops in deep space and shuts down, refusing to move due to a lack of a vital element, a quantity of ore known as Zeiton-7. The ore only comes from one place - Varos. 

Back on Varos, prices on the ore are being negotiated with Sil, a reptillian representative of the Galtron Mining Corporation. 

The governor of Varos is playing hard ball, even though he has no appreciation of the fact that the corporation are already getting the ore woefully cheap. The difficulty is that because of this, his planet has little money and people are having to ration food.  As part of the ruling process, the Governor is forced to submit to a public vote for the will of the people.  He asks them if he should hold out for a better price on Zeiton ore, but the vote goes against him and he is hit by a human cell disintegration beam. 

The beam severely weakens him and gives him one last chance to turn things around.  The Governor's guard, Bax, recommends that he kill Jondar to gain popularity with the citizens.

The Doctor, after a lot of sulking and proclaiming they're doomed to die in deep space alone, manages to repair the TARDIS just long enough to get it to Varos. 

He arrives in the area of Jondar's execution.  The guard stationed there thinks they're hallucinations when they turn up as there's an odd technology that causes them in the area.  The Doctor deals with the guard and frees Jondar. They're forced to run away as more guards show up and are ultimately rescued by a defecting guard and Areta, Jondar's partner.  They go through the punishment dome, being televised all the way to Sil's pleasure.  They pass through hallucinations, but are ultimately captured again and the Doctor is caught in a deadly vision of a desert which makes his body believe he's dying of thirst and heat exhaustion.

Perri is taken to the Governor and questioned.  Elsewhere, the Doctor is believed dead and taken to an acid pool where bodies are dumped. He recovers (being a time lord and not a mere human) and accidentally startles the guards who fall into the acid. 

He takes his leave and goes to find Perri.  It's not long before he's captured again and taken to the Governor.

Once together, it's decided that Jondar and the Doctor will be hung, and Perri and Areta will be mutated by a machine that takes your thoughts and turns them into horrifying twisted reality.  These fates are carried out, but just before the hangman releases the trapdoor, the Doctor figures out that Sil is manipulating and undercutting the price of Zeiton and explains to the Governor. 

The trapdoor opens and they fall through, the ends of the ropes not being attached.  Perri and Areta however are not so lucky and are changed into a bird and a reptile respectively. 

As it happens though, the Doctor steals a gun from a guard and shoots the control panel, reversing their effects in the nick of time.

Once more, Perri is captured but the Governor takes pity on her.  Unfortunately, he is out of time and hasn't managed to get a good deal from Sil and the underhanded Chief.  He submits to the public vote and Etta and Arrak watch as he is bombarded by the disintegrator again, likely for the last time. 

The guard with them defects however and stops the machine, allowing the Governor to live.  Together, they all escape and meet up with the Doctor again. 

They find some sentient, poisonous plant life in the end of the punishment dome and hide in it. The Chief officer and other corrupt members of the regime head into the tendrils to capture and kill the Doctor and co and are killed by the poisonous plant.

Sil's plan is thwarted, as there is suddenly another source of Zeiton 7 ore found and the Galtron Mining Corporation orders him to make a deal at any price.  The Governor is in a position to re-negotiate for the better and promises to end the brutality of the Reality TV Governorship.

The Doctor is gifted some Zeiton 7 ore and he and Perri go off into the sunset.

Trivia

• As you'll know if you've watched this story, there's nothing in it about vengeance. The title was chosen for the alliteration that matched the double V logo of the regime

• The original concept of Sil was for him to be in the fish tank, but it was too complicated and difficult to achieve at the time.

• Actor Nabil Shaban who played Sil came up with his trademark laugh after handling his friends pet snake (easy, I mean a real snake).  He watched its tongue flicking in and out and incorporated it into his persona, and voila.

• The "Marsh Minnows" he eats are peaches dyed green.  He ate so many of them that they made him ill in a way that he needed the toilet, unfortunately, the costume he was in was very difficult for him to actually use one!

• There was complaints received on this story about how violent it was. In fact, one Radio Times reader wrote in that it "exceeded the horrors of the holocaust!"  The writer took pride in the bad review and had it blown up and placed on his toilet wall

The Reveiw

Over the course of twenty two seasons, we've become accustomed to a few Doctor Who stories that are essentially good, but either make no sense, or have humongous plot holes in them.  Vengeance on Varos is one of these stories.

What makes it good is more about the ambience and tone of the story than anything that happens.  It is shot darker than much of the classic stories, the regime is as brutal and ruthless as the Kaleds and it does a very good job of showing the price of rebelling against a dictatorship and the consequence of corruption in the higher ranks. 

It cannot also be ignored that Sil is the last, truly good villain of original origin.  His look is perfect, his mannerisms and quirks are great and Nabil is just a good actor so sells it very well. 

Conversely, the things that let this story down are more about the plot itself and the logic of it. For example, if Varos was the only place to get Zeiton 7, how come they're selling it so low price to Galtron?  It cannot possibly be the case that they're the only company that has come to use it.  Also, why is the Chief backstabbing the Governor by driving down the price of the ore, when he has to live on that planet too?  Wouldn't he starve with the rest?  Well, it's implied that Sil will see him alright, but it would be a very obvious move and one that would get the Chief killed when others see how much he has.

Finally, the two and fro of the Doctor and Perri getting captured and escaping grows a little tiresome by the end, it was obviously filler to draw out the episode times to 45 mins.

The story is on point or perhaps even ahead of its time, like 1984, predicting the harshness of the government and the problems of reality TV, but to really enjoy it, there is some suspension of disbelief needed.

Rating

7 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

7 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• 1984

• The Enemy of the World

• Genesis of the Daleks

• The Sun Makers

• Mindwarp (Trial of a Timelord Episodes 5-8)

• The Happiness Patrol

• Bad Wolf (Doctor Who, Series 1)